Rübengeister – Sugar-Beet Goblins

It is autumn in Germany, the leaves have long started to turn into all shades of red and yellow and are now thrown.  Walking the place has yet again become a special experience, as on cold, misty and sunless days one moves through these warm colors, causing a gentle noise of rustling leaves with every step one takes. Like in childhood days I look down on the ground while walking and particularly seek the really big piles of leaves to walk through and spread all these colors around me while moving on.

Time of harvesting is already over and it comes to my mind, that as kids we used to grab one white well shaped sugar-beet each from the ones piled up at the edges of fields where they are poured by the harvesting machines to then at a time be further processed to become cattle forage. Each of us would carefully select our best sized beet and proudly carry it home. We would cut off the green and make the beet stand well all by itself. Then we would also cut the jelly-bag-cap -shaped tip and set it aside. After that the hard work starts: We would carve the beet with a knife and a spoon, digging down as far as our little fingers would permit us to do. Finally a scaring or smiling face was to be cut into the beet. A little candle be placed inside and lit and the jelly-bag-cap put back on top. These pale-dirty-white but illuminated little "monster beets" are the "Rübengeister", which were then to be placed accurately in our home's windows. The sallow glow of candlelight glinting in the caved sugar-beets conjured an occult and mysterious mood that is penetratingly accompanied by the strong odor of charred beet pod.

By this we kids made sugar-beet goblins visible in our homes. The spooky faces, the scaring grimaces and the play of glinting glow and shadow have always been expression of the growing awareness that wights of nights enter when darkness takes over. Traditions like these were at home in central Europe even earlier to Christianization. The fact that time of darkness noticeably increases until midwinter-night on December 21 gave rise to all kinds of traditions that go with such creatures of the dark. And these again differ from region to region. Some sugar-beet goblins would indeed merely be placed in windows, others would be presented on sticks in fearsome night processions. Some are meant to scare while others would protect homes and houses. Still others are considered the spooky ghosts of former owners or the builders. They however all have in common that they are being celebrated at this depressing dark time of year, the time of All Saints and All Souls.